Liffeyside

Letters from Dublin on the banks of the Liffey. An arts blog.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The last episode of the drama serial proof was on RTE last night. Wow, what can I say? High drama, but the ending was predictable enough. The leader of the Social Democrats, who has just won the general election with a landslide, is presented with the evidence of his P.R. man’s wrong doing. His campaign I found to be funded by the illegal trafficking of refugees into Ireland. What does he do? He makes his victory speech ignoring the evidence presented by the journalists. Nothing changes. Was I foolish to expect otherwise.

After Proof we had Questions and Answers, which is a current affairs programme, where members of the audience get the opportunity to pose questions to a select panel of five journalists/politicians/writers.

One question concerned the recent High Court ruling against section two of the Irish Immigration Act. Most of the panel agreed that the act had to be amended. The one member of the panel who disagreed was Noel Ahern brother of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and junior minister. According to Noel the government intends appealing the High Court decision.

The audience was then given the opportunity to speak briefly on the question. One individual stated that the country can’t afford so many people arriving. Irish people went to continents, while we are one small island on the edge of Europe. If anymore refugees come in we’ll be flooded out. The usual rubbish. As one of the panellists pointed out there are thousands of Irish illegal immigrants in the USA.

Another member of the audience stated that if we get rid of all the immigrants the budget deficit would cease to exist and there would be no more unemployment. The reality in Ireland is that if you wear to wave a magic wand right now and get rid of all those with an Eastern European accent or dark skin or from South East Asia and employed as a nurse, our country would grind to a halt within a number of hours.

The fact is Ireland is now dependent on it’s immigrant community to do all those dirty, difficult, dangerous jobs no-one else in Ireland wants. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to Ireland of the Welcomes.